This was a £24.1m increase on last year’s £672.4m and of the total balance, buy to let mortgages accounted for £170.2m. This was also up from £147.9m completed the year before.
Gross mortgage lending at the society dropped to £163m from £182m last year. Of this, its gross lending on buy to let mortgages also dropped from £57m to £51m.
Income from mortgage payments grew by £1.1m to £17m.
There were 22 borrowers in arrears on their mortgage payments by one month or more at the financial year-end – up from 2018’s total of 12 – and this represented 0.4 per cent of all borrowers. No properties were in possession during the year.
The society saw its profit before tax drop to £0.6m from £1.2m the year before. It said this was impacted by banking swap rates moving lower and staying low during the year.
Chief executive, Colin Fyfe (pictured), said: “The UK mortgage market in 2019 was flatter than anticipated, with consumers reluctant to make significant buying decisions. Against that backdrop, Hinckley and Rugby sought to create the right balance of lending quality, acceptable margins and appropriate volumes.
“Strengthening the society in areas including governance, risk, compliance, finance and underwriting has laid down solid foundations for the next stages of growth.”